Baldur's Gate is making it towards game of the year status for me and that's only a few hours in. I haven't done much else than create my character, play past the character and slowly start exploring the world. I'm most likely biased in this opinion due to being a huge Dungeons & Dragons nerd even before playing the game. I'm fine with that.
I've put a few more hours into Baldur's Gate 3 now. This game is just such a great experience. Being able to play such a detailed game like this with the rule-set of 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons is just magical. Any less detail than what this game has and I'm sure the game would have totally bombed. Dungeons & Dragons is all about making choices and forging your own paths and that is what this game let's you do.
I've explored a small section of the current overworld area after escaping from Hell. I've gained new companions, I've fought new monsters and I've delved into new dungeons. One of the first dungeons you'll happen upon in Baldur's Gate 3, if you make the right turns that is, is a chapel with an accompanying crypt. This whole dungeon perfectly portrayed the essence of how a dungeon in Dungeons & Dragons should be.
Close to the entrance we find a small party of grave robbers arguing about their way forward. They were quite agitated and I definitely sensed a bit of aggression in the way they spoke to me when my party approached them. They tried to threaten us away from the dungeon but since my character is proficient in intimidation I was able to instead threaten them away from the dungeons. It's funny how the turntables.
Since they left in such a hurry they even left their things behind I decided I might as well loot up their stuff. Before I was able to do that though the ground fell out under me and my whole party ended up falling down in the underground chapel while alerting the rest of the grave robbers down there. They weren't interested in talking this out and combat immediately ensued.
This fight was set up really well. My party was holed up in a small room with all of the enemy team bearing down on us. I thought I had a great tactic in place by letting them siphon into the room one by one while picking them off but one of the enemies had the great idea of throwing a fire bomb into the room basically lighting my whole team on fire which resulted in a total party kill.
After defeating the grace robbers on my second try using more aggressive tactics I was able to make my way through the crypt. Checking every corner for precious loot and taking everything I can find with me.
As I was making my way through the different rooms my characters suddenly started doing passive perception checks. Some failed and some succeeded and on every success a trap appeared in front of me. Luckily my team is all around pretty proficient in perception so I was able to make my way through the whole thing without setting off any trips. The rogue of my party had his hands full with disarming these.
The traps were guarding a sarcophagus that had some valuable loot and a key. Going deeper into the dungeon I found a door with no handle and no keyhole. Quite suspicious. Rummaging around a bit my party start doing more perception checks and lo and behold a lever appears on a nearby wall which opens the door. In here I found an alternate exit to the dungeon alongside a locked door leading even deeper into the dungeon. The key from earlier opened this door.
Behind the door was a large room with a giant goddess statue and dead scribes scattered around. All of them long dead and skeletonized. I loot them all and start exploring the room. There's not much in here but another perception check uncovers a button on a back wall which opens the door to a secret room while also reanimating the skeletons leading to yet another combat encounter.
These skeletons were not as weak as they looked. They also had immense luck with their attack rolls while I was totally cursed with mine. I missed probably half of my attacks while they hit all of their and even got in a total of 4 critical hits in the first two rounds of combat. My character Axii was quickly downed and throughout the combat failed all of his death saving rolls which resulted in him dying. Full on dead. My rogue and cleric also got downed but luckily my wizard managed to take out the remaining enemies in the next round.
I had to use a Scroll of Revivify to resurrect Axii. The other option would have been to reload an earlier save. I could have save-scummed my way back to life and tried the combat again for a more favorable result but I don't want to play my game that way. I'm going to let the things that happen happen instead of cheesing things towards my favor.
Time to check out the secret room. A grand sarcophagus rests there and when I go to open it a cutscene starts playing and out of the sarcophagus comes a creepy mummy whom I can only imagine is a lich. I was ready for a boss fight but he turned out to be quite friendly. He asked me some corny philosophical question about the worth of a mortal life. I can't remember what I said to him but he was satisfied with my answer and told me we would meed again in the future. That was it. Quite obscure but I'm excited to see where this encounter will lead down the road. I wonder what would have happened if I had answered in a way he didn't like.
I looted the remaining containers in the crypt and made my way out.
I won't be covering every single dungeon and thing I do in Baldur's Gate 3 in this kind of detail but I wanted to share this one seeing as it so perfectly captured the essence of a dungeon from Dungeons & Dragons. Expect more general posts in the future. 😛
All images in this post are screenshots taken by me.